The present invention relates generally to the art of telecommunications, and, more particularly, to a method and system for determining which element in a multimedia communications network will play a particular tone or announcement during a communications session.
Wireless communications networks allow mobile devices to communicate with each other and other networks, such as the Internet and the public switched telephone network. First and second generation wireless telephone systems are generally constrained in the amount of bandwidth available for communication. This limits capacity and also the types of services that can be provided. Third generation (3G) wireless systems, which are being developed through the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), hold the promise of greater bandwidth, thereby increasing capacity and allowing for enhanced services, such as multimedia services. 3GPP is the new worldwide standard for the creation, delivery, and playback of multimedia over new, high-speed wireless networks. 3GPP enables the free sharing of multimedia files between a variety of devices, including cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and notebook and desktop computers. 3GPP devices include, in addition to a voice communication interface, capability for communication of data and display of data, including video.
3G networks include several network components that are adapted to play tones and announcements, such as call failure, call setup, special services tones and announcements. In 3G systems, both the media gateways (MGW) and the media resource function processors (MRFP) have the capability of playing tones and announcements. However, the 3G standards as defined in UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) Release 5, the MRFP plays tones and announcements, on instructions from the CSCF via the multimedia resource function controller (MRFC). In addition, there are fixed rules to route announcements and tones. However, there may be situations when the MRFP cannot apply the treatment (e.g., tones and announcements) to a call, as required.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method that provides both the MGW and the MRFP with the flexibility to play both announcements and tones. Furthermore, instead of following fixed rules on which component provides what tone or announcement in every call scenario, it would be desirable to allow the CSCF (call session control function) to determine where to play tones and announcements.